Value Of My Website?

[RakeReport]

Hi all,

My site is not available for sale at this time, but I'd be interested in seeing what it might be valued at currently, for future sale consideration.

I obtained www.RakeReport.net in March of this year. Since that time I've seen monthly ad revenue more than triple (March was $775 in sales, September was closer to $3,000 in revenue)

The past three months averages are:

page views: 130,336/month
visitors: 67,773/month

Google Page Rank: 3

3-month Alexa rank: 470,983 (+486,623)
1 wk avg Alexa rank: 292,413

3-month Alexa Reach: 0.00023% (+188%)
1 wk avg Alexa Reach: 0.003%

3-month Alexa Page Views: 2.4/user (+26%)
1 wk avg Alexa Page Views: 4.1/user


So anyway, I'm not sure how this site might be valued if for sale. And in the future, what type of information would I need to have ready to provide to potential buyers?

Thanks!

AJ
President
www.RakeReport.net

[Jeremy]

The Alexa ranking doesn't really matter. You're probably safe estimating it at 1 1/2 to 3 times annual earnings based on the net average of the last 12 months of business. But then again much of the value is dependent upon what someone is willing to pay.

[themike537]

Potential buyers would want to see:

proof of income - screenshots of paypal or however you're receiving payments

traffic stats - more than your # of visitors, you'd want to include your traffic sources, which keywords you're getting hits from, what pages are receiving traffic, etc

I agree with Jeremy that Alexa isn't really important, but I'd estimate the site at more like 1 year's revenue, so probably $10-$15k (depends what your revenue was in between March and now)

[RakeReport]

Thanks for the replies.

So with a 1.5-3x the annual earn if I could consistantly produce 4K of revenue each month then I could expect the site to possibly sell between 72K-144K, but I would need to have that type of revenue over a consecutive 12-month period?

[themike537]

That might be slightly optimistic. If you look at it from a buyer's perspective, would you want to pay $100k-ish for a site making $4k/month in a constantly changing industry?

At 12 months revenue, you're looking at a value of $48k, which I think you'd have a much better chance getting if your site made $4k consistently.

But it really all depends on what the buyer's willing to pay, so start high and don't shortchange yourself.

[losercore]

I've now sold all but 2 of my sites and have a lot to say about this issue. IThat's a lot sites now actually)

Your site is worth whatever anyone will pay for it. That's the bottom line.

In this industry I seem to find that 10 months worth of provable income minus 25%

So a site making $2,000 a month x10 -25% = $15,000

now does that mean you will get $15,000? Probably not. You now need to prove what the future will net for the buyer.

If all of this $2,000 is from MGR accounts that are not being sold with the site than the site is worth much, much less as the buyer's ROI is much greater than 10 months now.

If your signups are from special deals where you give an incentive (or Rakeback) this needs to be conidered as negative money too.

So it comes down to what you can prove was made, what you can honeslty over the a buyer in future returs and what that person ultimatley feels the site is worth to them.

[RakeReport]

Thanks again for the additional feedback. My site is not a rakeback provider, nor am I an affiliate or sub-affiliate.

My site acts as a directory of rakeback affiliates who bid for the five front-page listings or purchase flat-fee listings on our Other Rakeback Offers page.

In addition to that we offer banner ads for poker-related content as well.

While I've only had the site since March I have a number of advertisers who have stuck with the site consistantly each month. So I assume that being able to show long-term advertisers would help increase a potential sale price in the future as well?

As for the Alexa rankings, right now I know it doesn't account for much, although we've been making progress. But I believe I read that once you hit the 100,000 or better ranking that it's taken more seriously as proof of your traffic levels?

[themike537]

Well just in general Alexa really isn't a very trusted/commonly used measurement of traffic.

[RakeReport]

Originally Posted by themike537

Well just in general Alexa really isn't a very trusted/commonly used measurement of traffic.

Aside from my webhosts "webalizer" statistics, is there anything else that I might consider that will be useful for potential buyers to analyze should I decide to sell in the future?

Any particular stat programs or sites, etc?

[TheDean]

I would like to warn anybody against doing business in any way with RakeReport.net or Anthony J Martino, of Gardner Mass.

He worked for me for 18 months and then offered to run RakeReport.net in exchange for a share of the profits from the site. He had built up a lot of trust with me over these 18 months and I had no problem transferring the domain to him...as he had proposed hiding the fact that I was the real owner of the site, as the site was in need of some good PR.

The second I transfered the domain to him I got an email from him telling me that he was going to take the site on his own. He wasn't going to be paying me anything and if I told anybody any of this, he'd do anything in his power to cause me grief.

I've been lazy about getting the site back but I'm going full force now. The problem is, I don't know how to go about this. We never had a contract or anything like that. I didn't actually transfer the domain, I don't know how to do that...but Anthony talked to the manager of my domains and hosting and lied to him and had him do it.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to go about getting my site back from this scum bag?

I'd be willing to pay a $1000 reward if somebody can carry out these steps for me or give me a step by step guide for how to do it. Legally the domain and site should not be his...I owned them for a long long time, had the site designed and built etc.


You can reach me at grindblog at gmail dot com


Oh and if you are considering buying the site from him, you obviously should reconsider that...I'll be puruing every means possible to get it back, so you could well lose your money.

Also take note that he made this post here shortly after I told hiim of my intent to get the site back. I hadn't done anything about it for months.

Getting a little worried there AJ? You should be.